Borrowing this trick from Sherlock can super-size your memory

Do you find it difficult to remember things? Well you're in luck because a new scientific study has revealed that you could have the memory of a world champion, if you have the right training.

The findings, based on brain scans of 23 world memory champions, showed that it's all about brain connectivity, rather than anatomy. Therefore, neuroscientists found they were able to train people with ordinary memory skills to rival the experts.

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"A good memory is something you could learn and you could train for," lead researcher, Dr Martin Dresler, of Radboud University Medical Centre in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, told the BBC. "And if you use strategic mnemonic training memory strategies you can really considerably increase your memory, even if you have a very bad memory at the start."

But where does Sherlock come in to it?

The memory study, published in the scientific journal Neuron, showed that the best way to train your brain to remember more and recollect a large amount of information is through mnemonic training or memory devices.

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Introducing, the memory palace! (Or the use of loci, in technical terms.)

Sherlock fans will be well aware of this memory technique and will have seen the Baker Street sleuth accesses his mind palace to recall important information during a difficult investigation.

But sorry, Sherlock, as this method actually derives from much further back in ancient Greek and Roman times. Scroll down to find out how to access your own memory palace.

Sherlock

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What did the study involve?

The brains of the memory champions were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), recording the brain activity by identifying blood flow changes. The scientists then compared their brains with those of people of a similar age and IQ. There were only slight differences in connectivity patterns.

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"There we learned that neurobiological differences between these world class memory champions and more or less normal control subjects appear to be quite widespread, distributed and subtle," Dr Dresler explained.

During the research, the scientists then tested to see whether people's memory skills could improve. Some people were given techniques used by memory champions, others had memory training that did not include mnemonic methods aka. the memory palace, while the rest had no training at all.

The participants were trained for 30 minutes a day for six weeks, after which their brains were scanned again.

One mnemonic device involves using a memory palace

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The findings

The results revealed that those who had the training used by world memory champions saw a big increase in memory capability. Before the training they could recite 26 to 30 words from a list of 72. Whereas after the training, they could remember more than 60. And their brains showed a change in connectivity patterns.

"In a sense they really develop brain patterns that remind us of those of memory athletes," said Dr Dresler. "This specific pattern in brain connectivity appears to be the neurobiological basis of these increased and superior memory performances."

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The study found that, though these memory devices are great for remembering long lists of information, it's not clear if they help improve everyday memory. So incredibly handy when you are out shopping, but less so on those occasions when you walk into a room and forget quite why you went in there in the first place.

The method involves imagining yourself walking through a place you know well, such as a building, and using each location as a visual prompt to store information.

1. Choose your palace

This needs to be a space that you are really familiar with and can walk around in your head and include all the details. This could be your home, your garden, your favourite walk route.

2. Choose your route around your palace

Part of the process is mentally walking through the palace so select a route. This could be coming in through the front door, walking around the ground floor and then going upstairs, for example. Or it could be walking the perimeter of your garden and observing the different plants.

3. Take note of the details along your route

Each element in your mental tour of the palace can become a memory slot so take the time to build furniture, storage, pictures, flowers, trees etc into your route.

4. Practice!

Before you start to associate your palace with memories, you need to have your mental route concrete in your head. After all, you want to be remembering a memory, not what comes next in your palace! Walk through your palace a couple of times a day to cement it fully in your head.

5. Make memory associations

For everything you need to remember, assign it a place in the palace using a memory peg. For example, if you need to remember a shopping list, the front door could be milk – take a few moments to visually associate the front door with milk. Perhaps you could visualise milk dripping down it. The next prominent feature in the palace, the sofa maybe, could be bread. Visualise sitting on a sofa made of bread to cement the association in your memory.

6. Visit the palace

Finally, when you need to recall the information, visit the palace and walk through it. Passing each feature you have associated with an item on the list should trigger the memory to spring into your head.

This technique could be used for recalling shopping lists, recipes, what medication to take in the morning, passwords and many more – anything that can be broken down into smaller segments.